Famed street musician Sam Schildkraut collects art

The homeless saxophone player is working on purchasing a piece by former CityBeat cover artist Michael Summers

Sam Schildkraut is the busker who's been playing music on the corner of Mission Boulevard and Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach seemingly nonstop for the past two years. Seriously, the saxophone player is prolific, putting in long hours in order to make enough money to feed himself and his dog, Gangsta.

The musician and self-described "failed actor" currently lives in a mini van with Gangsta, but he isn't letting his dire financial situation get in the way of his art collecting.

"For a year, I’ve been putting down payments on a piece called 'Flight of Fantasy' by Michael Summers," he says. "It's a robot painted in gold, and it looks like something out of the 1930s."

Schildkraut loves every little detail about the painting—the robot's yellow eyes, the black-and-white background, the butterflies, which are being painted one-by-one by the diligent robot holding a palette and paintbrush.

While walking down the street with his dog recently, the cover of CityBeatcaught Schildkraut's eye. He recognized it immediately as a painting by Summers.

"I knew it and from quite a long distance away," he says.

Gangsta is the love of Schildkraut's life and, over the years, he's collected dozens of photos of his dog with celebrities, big and small.

"We've got one with Sylvester Stallone.... One with our current mayor," Schildkraut explains.

So, to celebrate the joy of discovering Summers' work on our cover, Schildkraut sent us a photo of Gansta appreciating the piece he soon hopes to own.